Pretty Armor Samurai Ryo
by Melee
Summary: Ryo and Shuu get caught with nowhere to turn. AU.


Pretty Armor Samurai Ryo  
  
by Melee  
  
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o_0  
  
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"Magical Girls," Shuu growled in Ryo's ear, furious as only fear could make her, "never have any armor worth a shit." A strong arm gripped Ryo's waist like iron. Her vision tunneled, a hand feebly clutching at the smooth armor covering Shuu's forearm. A broken rib and still Shuu gave no thought to gentleness. Shuu thought if she let Ryo slip an inch the fire witch would fall, and there was simply no time for that. Shuu wouldn't lose her again, not for any amount of Ryo's pain.  
  
So Ryo slipped in and out of consciousness as much from blood loss as from Shuu's determination, locked like a vise around her middle. Real armor would have been nice, Ryo thought brokenly as she was towed along, away from the two Warladies and their ambush. Armor that didn't just cover shins and chest and wrists. Pretty red silk shirts and ribbons wouldn't stop much - hadn't in fact stopped the Lady Jackal's chain from boring into her collar bone. That, Ryo thought with a gasp and a moan as Shuu jerked, dodging hungry ghosts, was very probably broken too.  
  
She stopped being able to even help the other girl move her along. Feet that had at least found uncertain footing gave way as they hit the ground. Thought fell away from her. The last thing she remembered was the thick, sweet smell of Shuu's curly hair.  
  
Ryo exhaled sharply against Shuu's neck, faltering into the taller girl's shoulder with a small, animal cry, and Shuu knew she'd lost Ryo. Shuu had taken hits in the attack of the Snake and the Jackal; she could not carry Ryo much farther without help from the listless Samurai Ember in her arms. Not fair to lose her strength now when she needed it.  
  
They still stood within the Empress's city, the outer wall a nearly ludicrous goal, especially with the creaks and groans of the Dynasty ghosts already nearing. Shuu laid Ryo down beneath the raised front of one the city's empty houses. Ryo was failing too fast, slipping not into stillness but into nightmare and fever. Shuu did not want to imagine Snake poison on Lady Jackal's chain.  
  
The ghosts turned the corner, screeching in triumph at the fallen and battered Samurai before them. The Empress's ghosts loomed tall and willowy, tantalizingly indistinct. Female forms that seemed shadows of clouds but with joints that screamed and creaked liked rusted metal, and to touch them was to touch the cold steel of a blade.  
  
A blade like, Shuu noticed with no small distress, the first of the group held in a rising hand, foggy head splitting into the grin of an abyss. Shuu could take them hand-to-hand, smash them apart until the pieces could do no harm, but the amber robes of the Quake Samurai would do little to stop a katana aimed at her middle or her neck. Best to quickly take that one out, trusting the armor on her forearm to stop the sword's edge.  
  
Leaving Ryo behind, all of Shuu's dread trapped in the dark girl's troubled frown, Shuu leapt forward, cursing a Magical Girl's bare legs and Magical Girl heels, but knowing her life depended on that unnatural speed.  
  
The ghost swung ineptly at Shuu's head as she feinted to the right. Acting on pure desperation, Shuu slammed the protected back of her hand into the flat of the blade, wrenching it away. The ghost took Shuu's fist in the middle of its canyon smile and shivered in two.  
  
It dropped, smoke curling up as the pieces shattered like crystal on the stone, while three more of its fellows pulled swords from their bodies of billowing gray clouds. Shuu staggered back, tripping on tired legs, and bellowed in frustration. The ghosts circled, and Shuu could do nothing but toss her hair from her face and glare defiantly.  
  
Ryo, oh god, can they not know Ryo is there?  
  
If anything, that might make it worth dying. To take them all out on the off chance that the next group might overlook the sick child sleeping in the shadow of their city. The ghosts hesitated, soaking up with twisted joy the cruel emotions of humanity, despair and fury, deliciously paired.  
  
Fat chance of saving Ryo it seemed, when a slight hand brushed Shuu's cheek and the ghosts chattered anew with metallic excitement. "Shuu," Ryo whispered, "Shuu, don't fall down. Please."  
  
But Shuu couldn't get up, could only watch Ryo's hand as it turned palm up, resting on Shuu's chest, and the fingers curved up so carefully and so precisely. She could feel the power stir painfully through Ryo's body, sensation rushing into Shuu from their contact. Black hair fell down to hit Shuu's face. Hair that could not be controlled even by a stupid Magical Girl hairdo.  
  
"Fire storm," Ryo whispered into Shuu's grey-blue hair. The ghosts screamed again, this time with a pain they so rarely felt as stone and clay and brick burst forth with a flame that burned everything it touched but the two human girls lying on the cobbled road of the demon city.  
  
Then Ryo was collapsing over Shuu just as Shuu's mind found someone it knew, reaching and grasping with adrenalin charged strength. "Shin!" Shuu screamed through mind and body, fingers buried in Ryo's shirt and hair and salty tears on her cheeks.  
  
Cool water reached out to sooth Quake's panic, and Shin said softly across worlds, "Teleport."  
  
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0_o  
  
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...  
  
Someone dared me to write a Shuu/Ryo. I got bored. Good Melee. *self- headpat* Yay!  
  
Aw... Ryo so cute and hurt and you just want to pick her up and give her lots of love...  
  
Needless to say, Shuu agrees with me. *steps back to survey work* Yep, at the moment this is probably what we call finished. Any more ideas? 


End file.
